


Poisoning the Herald

by SingingInTheRaiin



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Adapting to new circumstances, F/M, Gen, Milk Allergy, Vomiting, accusations of attempted murder
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-11 15:30:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20548457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingingInTheRaiin/pseuds/SingingInTheRaiin
Summary: The Inquisitor has never consumed animal milk before coming to Haven. That was probably for the best.





	Poisoning the Herald

It had certainly been a long, whirlwind of a day. If anyone had told Lavellan that she’d go from being her clan’s second to being the only survivor of an explosion and wearing a green fire on her palm, she certainly would have called them crazy. If they’d added in the fact that her glowy hand was the only thing that could stop rifts from pouring out demons, she’d have probably slapped them. And yet, here she was. 

Now that she’d helped save the day once, she was being lauded as the Herald of a religion that she didn’t even believe in. At least it was better than being despised for something she didn’t do, though she was sure that her clan would be quite unhappy to hear of the latest developments.

But first thing’s first- she needed to eat. Her stomach felt completely hollow, and considering that she’d supposedly been unconscious for three days, she probably hadn’t had anything more sustaining than some water and stew dribbled down her throat. And she had not been pleased to be dragged in to a war council meeting on an empty stomach, but everything moved so fast among the shems, and she hadn’t been able to find a good time to protest.

The meeting was over now, though, and she looked around at the advisors to try and figure out which one would be easiest to get some food out of. Probably Josephine but… Lavellan had already managed to lose track of the ambassador. Cassandra was still nearby, but she and Leliana had both been threatening presences after the explosion, so Lavellan was wary of them. 

That just left Commander Cullen, who was on his way out of the chantry. She hesitated for a moment, then chased after him. He was a former templar, which made the mage in her cringe in fright, but he hadn’t been the one threatening to send her away in chains to be tried for mass murder, so she decided to follow her instincts, which said that he could be trusted. 

“Commander!” 

He turned around, and seemed startled to see that Lavellan had called out to him. She marched up to him, and tilted her head back to look at him properly. “I’m famished. Where can I get something to eat?” Her stomach growled loudly right then, as if on cue.

Cullen’s eyes widened in alarm. “I’m terribly sorry, Herald. I didn’t think-”

She held up one hand, and was gratified to see that it actually got him to stop talking. “It’s fine. You can make it up to me by getting me some grub now. And, uh, please don’t call me Herald. It makes me feel very awkward.”

“Ah, in that case, there’s no need to call me Commander,” he said, a light flush on his cheeks. “Right, food, yes, right this way.” He led her across the camp, and to one of the tents near the soldiers. “It’s not much, but I’m afraid there won’t be anything hot for at least another few hours. Hopefully this will hold until then.” He rummaged through a small chest, and pulled out some dried meat and a weird yellow block. 

He set the food down on a plate, and then handed it to Lavellan. She sat down on his sleeping roll, crossing her legs and balancing the plate on her lap. She poked at the block curiously. “What’s this, then?”

Cullen blinked a few times before answering. “It’s, uh, cheese.”

Lavellan wrinkled her nose. “Oh, I think I’ve heard of this. Is it rotten druffalo milk?”

Cullen remained standing, so it was easy to see the way he awkwardly shifted the weight of his legs. “I wouldn’t call it rotten… Do elves not eat cheese?”

She shook her head, then paused. “Well, I can’t speak for the city elves, but I know that the Dalish don’t. How do you not see how unnatural it is to drink milk from anything that isn’t your mother? But if this is what’s available, then I suppose I’ll have to learn to get used to it.” She ate the dried meat first, since it was familiar, though much saltier than she was used to. Probably because most of the inquisition was made of humans, and humans had very weak tastes. 

Once the meat was all gone, Lavellan warily tried a bite of cheese. The texture was extremely odd, and it had a taste that was salty and earthy, but it wasn’t terrible, even if it was beyond bizarre to be consuming animal milk. When she was done, her and Cullen made an awkward attempt at small talk, but only a few minutes passed before Lavellan could feel her stomach rumbling, and she pressed one hand over her mouth as she rushed out of the tent.

She dropped to her knees and started vomiting, long past the point where her stomach was empty, and she felt like she was dying. Cullen had followed her out, and he cautiously reached out to put a hand on her shoulder. Lavellan flinched away, though not with as much force as she wanted, because she felt terribly weak, and all of her limbs were trembling. “You’ve poisoned me,” she accused in a scratchy voice, throat feeling like it was on fire. Then her eyes rolled, and everything went black. The last thing she thought about was how stupid she felt to appear so weak right in front of all the troops.

,,,

Lavellan woke up with a pounding headache, and a stomach that felt like it was trying to revolt right out of her body. She managed to crack her eyes open, and there was no one else in the room with her, so she closed them again and took a deep breath. There hadn’t been enough time before, because she’d panicked, but now that she was calmer, and didn’t feel quite so much like she was going to die right that instant, it was easier for her to focus on her magic, and slowly send it throughout her body to heal up everything that wasn’t running properly. 

When she was done, she felt loads better, and grabbed the glass that had been set down on her bedside table so that she could chug down all the water inside. That made her feel even better, and she got up. There was a set of folded clean clothes resting at the foot of the bed, and she quickly changed into them, grimacing at the thought of the state that her previous ones must have been in after expelling her entire stomach like that. 

She got up and wandered outside. It was quite chilly, but it was easy enough to warm up the air around her so that she’d be comfortable, and then she set out to find someone who could explain what had happened. She ended up finding Leliana first, and the spymaster quickly turned her attention to Lavellan. “Herald. I see that you’re feeling better?”

Lavellan nodded. “Indeed. Though I would be even better if I’d never been poisoned in the first place.”

Leliana pursed her lips together. “Ah, yes, about that… of course after seeing you become violently ill and accuse the commander of poisoning you, the matter was looked into. There were no traces of poison to be found in the crumbs that were left behind on your plate, or anywhere else in the commander’s tent. And I’m sure if you saw how upset he was, you would believe him innocent.”

Lavellan narrowed her eyes and put her hands on her hips. “Are you suggesting that I… what? Poisoned myself just to frame him?”

Leliana slowly shook her head, and there was a small grimace on her face. “No. We also tested a sample of your vomit, and we could not detect any poison within it.”

Lavellan wrinkled her nose at the thought of someone doing experiments on her vomit, but knew that that wasn’t the most important part of this conversation. “Well then what happened?”

It looked like it was killing Leliana to have to shrug in response to that. “There hasn’t been any conclusive results yet. I’ve seen people become ill from rotten food, but I’ve never seen anything quite as gruesome as what happened to you. No one was even entirely certain that you would recover.” She gave Lavellan a long look, but seemed satisfied that the elf was all healed up. “Cullen had mentioned that you’d never had cheese before? Perhaps that is something to look into?”

Lavellan shrugged, but then sighed at the mention of Cullen’s name. “Well, if he didn’t actually poison me, I should probably go and apologize to him. Accusing him of attempted murder in front of his troops probably wasn’t my finest moment.”

It looked like Leliana was attempting to bite back a bit of a smile, which was somehow scarier than her usual stern expression. “I can assure you that he was not too bothered by the accusation. He was much more concerned about your health than anything. He should be out training the troops at the moment, but I’m sure he wouldn’t mind a bit of a distraction from you.”

“I’ll go see him, then. Ah, just let me know, please, if you figure out what happened. I definitely don’t want to ever experience any of that again. I can’t exactly fight demons or travel to meet people if I’m laid up in bed sick.”

After getting confirmation from Leliana that she would be kept in the loop, Lavellan headed out of Haven’s gates, and walked over to where Cullen was in the middle of barking orders at the soldiers. She hesitated for a moment, but then caught his eye, and he told the group to continue with their exercises, and then made his way over to her. 

Lavellan almost blushed from the intensity in Cullen’s gaze as he looked her up and down, assessing her current wellness. “I hadn’t heard that you woke up yet, but I’m glad.” He reached up to rub at the back of his neck awkwardly before continuing. “I want you to know that I never intended to do anything that could harm you.” His voice was full of an almost boyish earnestness, and it seemed impossible to not believe him.

She gave him a small smile. “I know. I’ve already been to see Leliana. Sorry for accusing you. I just-” then she cut herself off, and had the thought that if she mentioned anything about how she was a mage and he used to be a templar, it would almost definitely make him get a sad puppy dog look on his face. “I just panicked. I’d never gotten that sick before.”

Cullen nodded, easily accepting that answer, and it was partially true anyways. “Well, I’m glad that you’re feeling better.” They both stood there awkwardly for another few seconds, and then Cullen cleared his throat. “I should, uh,”

“Yeah, yeah, totally.” They both stayed in place for another second, before Cullen nodded once and then abruptly turned around to head back over to the people he’d been in the middle of training. Lavellan watched him go, and even though she barely knew the man, it occurred to her that he seemed like a decent person. Not at all what she would have expected from a former templar. And, as she watched him walk away, it occurred to her that he had a rather nice bum, too.

,,,

Everyone watched with wide eyes as Lavellan carefully raised a bite of cheese to her mouth. At least this time it was within the privacy of a room in the chantry, and not right in front of the entire Inquisition. They’d already tested the dried meat yesterday, and the water the day before. Nothing had happened either day, except for Lavellan feeling particularly awkward about all of the eyes on her, and a bit peckish from only eating the small samples.

Nothing happened at first, but within a few minutes, Lavellan felt ill again, and leaned over to retch into the bucket that had been provided to her. It wasn’t as bad as last week, because it had only been a couple of bites, and once she was done dry-heaving, someone handed her a cup of water, which she first used to rinse out her mouth, and then quickly gulped the rest down.

Leliana scribbled away in her notes, as well as the physicians in the room. “Well, I think that proves that it was the cheese. Though I’ve never seen someone have a reaction like that before, even if it was your first time eating it just the other day.” She looked over at one of her people that were stationed by the doorway. “One of you fetch me a cup of milk,” she ordered. It didn’t take them long to return with the milk, and then Leliana held the cup out to Lavellan. “I know the last thing you must want is to be subjected to more testing, but this seems like the best way to stop you from dying out in the field.”

Lavellan already felt exhausted, and her throat was quite sore, but she took the cup, took a deep breath in, and then gulped down all the milk inside. She was pretty sure that if she sipped it, she wouldn’t be able to get it all down. She had no idea how people thought this stuff was edible when it felt like slime running down the back of her throat.

With her stomach still roiling from the cheese, it seemed to take much less time before she felt like she was about to sick, and vomited into the bucket again. She felt like a sweaty mess as she slumped back in her seat. “So what’s the diagnosis, then?”

Adan stepped forward and cleared his throat. “I’ve seen other elves consume cheese, and other products with milk in them, so it isn’t an elf thing. I’ve never seen such a severe reaction, at least not from anyone who lived, and not to milk of all things, but based on your neck, which currently appears covered in hives, this is actually some kind of allergy. Does your clan eat anything at all with milk in it?” Lavellan shook her head, and the apothecary nodded like that’s what he’d expected her to say. “Because you were never exposed to it before, your body never built up a tolerance to it.”

Lavellan frowned. “You can resist allergies?”

“Sometimes. Depending on the severity and the specific person’s situation. I would certainly advise, and I’m sure you’ll agree, that you avoid consuming any milk products for the foreseeable future.”

Lavellan shrugged. “Fine by me. Can’t miss what I never had.”

Leliana had a pensive look on her face. “We’ll need to make sure that you always have enough non-milk based rations when you head out, especially if you’re to make it to the Hinterlands anytime soon. What kinds of things did you usually eat, back with your clan? I know that the Dalish move around quite often, so you must be used to foods that can survive the travel.”

Lavellan shrugged. “A lot of times, we tried to make sure we traveled to areas that would be easy to forage in. We had fresh meat when we could, dried meat when there was no time to hunt. Uh, lots of nuts and berries, bread, oats, vegetables when we traded for them or stopped long enough to plant them ourselves.”

Leliana nodded once she’d finished writing all of that down. “Alright, good, good.” Then she looked around the overly crowded room. “The Herald’s allergy is not to leave Haven. At all. Or else we might find ourselves in the unfortunate position of her being poisoned for real. Alright, we should give the Herald some space to breath.” Someone grabbed the sick bucket on their way out, and then Lavellan was left in peace. 

Even though she felt a bit dizzy when she stood up, she gulped down some clean water, and then headed out. Lavellan had never been one to sit still for very long. She wandered around Haven, trying to not get too bothered by all the people who bowed their heads or murmured prayers when she walked past them. 

Without meaning to, Lavellan ended up finding herself walking up to Solas. “Ah, Herald. It’s good to see you up and about.”

Lavellan gave him a long look before nodding once. Something about Solas always gave her a weird feeling in the pit of her stomach when she let herself about him for too long. “You’re pretty old right?” Then her eyes widened when she realized how rude that sounded. “Ah, I mean-”

Solas just looked amused. “It’s alright, I’m not offended.”

“Right, uh, I just meant that you’re old enough to know a lot of things, right? Like about magic and stuff?” Solas nodded once, looking at her like she was some kind of curiosity. “So I know plenty of healing magic already, but do you know if there are any spells to heal allergies?”

The other elf tilted his head as he looked at Lavellan carefully. “Although the symptoms of allergies can be quite burdensome, I’m not sure that allergies themselves are something to be healed. It’s your body’s way of protecting itself. If you got rid of that, what risks would you be taking?”

Lavellan’s shoulders slumped down. “Well, it was worth a shot, anyways. So hey, I’m supposed to head out to the Hinterlands in a few days to talk to some chantry lady or whatever. You in?”

Solas smiled. “I would be honored to accompany you.”

“Great! I’ll let you know once I have a better idea of when exactly we’re leaving.” Then she hurried off, barely noticing that Cullen had just emerged from the apothecary, and was giving her a strange look.

,,,

It was surprisingly easy to avoid milk while on the road, and everyone had been pleasantly surprised when Lavellan revealed that she was a more than capable hunter, as well as a cook. 

Things went pleasantly smoothly, and Lavellan hadn’t realized how much she’d missed traveling until she was doing it again. It was also always fun to meet new people, and spread the influence of the Inquisition, though she still felt awkward whenever anyone referred to her as ‘Herald’.

Because of how well things were going, it seemed inevitable that something would go wrong. Lavellan and her advisors were all invited to dine with a nearby bann who was interested in learning more about the Inquisition. Normally Cullen, Leliana, and Josephine all prefered to stay in Haven, where they were constantly busy with something or another, but because it was less than a day’s trip away, Cullen and Josephine decided that it was worth going if it could gain more support for their cause. Leliana claimed that the entire Inquisition would fall apart without her, and insisted on staying behind.

The conversations went well enough to begin with, and the bann was actually rather charming (which is why Lavellan didn’t understand the way Cullen kept scowling whenever the other man’s back was turned).

Then they all sat down to eat, and the food looked and smelled delicious. They all began eating, and complimenting the cook. Small talk continued throughout the meal, and then the bann looked quite proud of himself as dessert was served. Lavellan wasn’t even sure what it was supposed to be, and thought it might seem rude to ask, so she just glanced to the side. When she saw how pleased Cullen looked, she relaxed, and began to eat as well. 

A few mouthfuls in, and Lavellan felt like she was about to be sick everywhere, which would certainly create an awkward situation, and probably not endear her to the bann. Cullen seemed to notice right away, and quickly whispered something to Josephine before abruptly standing up and grabbing Lavellan to pull her out of the room.

She managed to hold it until they were outside, and then she dropped to the ground and threw up. She groaned as she sat back, leaning up against the side of the bann’s house. “I’m sorry.”

Cullen crouched down in front of her, and reached out to pat her shoulder. “No, I’m sorry. I’m such a fool. I know that frozen cream is made with milk, but I didn’t think about it at all. I should have been more careful. I’m so sorry, Herald.”

Lavellan waved aside his guilt. “Don’t blame yourself, Cullen. Having to be so careful of what I eat is just as new to me as it is to you, and you’re not used to traveling around with me most of the time, so it’s understandable for you to forget. I am responsible for my own health, and should be smart enough to advocate for myself.” Cullen helped her get back to her feet, and she gave him a grateful smile. “Come on, let’s get back in there before the bann thinks we’ve ditched. Maybe afterwards, we can go somewhere to find something more edible for me.”

Cullen hesitated, though, so Lavellan didn’t move either. “‘We’ as in… you and I?”

She nodded. “Yup! Unless you’ve got too many important things to deal with once we get back, which I’d totally understand.”

Cullen quickly shook his head. “No, nothing of too great importance. I can make time for you.”

Lavellan smiled. “Yeah?”

Cullen smiled in return. “Yeah.”

“Wonderful. I can’t wait.” She reached out to grab Cullen’s hand so that they could walk back inside together. “You know, it’s probably a good thing I just puked my guts out. Otherwise, there wouldn’t be anything stopping me from just kissing you right now, and I’m not sure that would be appropriate in our current location.”

From the look on Cullen’s face, it didn’t seem he quite cared about what would be appropriate in their current location. Lavellan laughed, and gave his hand a quick squeeze. So becoming the Herald meant she was stuck with all kinds of responsibility, and found out that it would be very easy to die from eating the wrong food, but at least one good thing had come out of it all.


End file.
